July 2nd 2011 central Kansas severe storms

Landspout Tornado and Large Hail Impact Central Kansas

July 2nd, 2011

A brief landspout tornado developed near Moundridge, KS early Saturday evening July 2nd 2011 around 7 pm. The thunderstorm which produced the rope-like tornado formed along and interacted with the surface stationary front draped from west to east across central Kansas. This surface boundary interacted with the low level wind flow into the storm updraft, causing the air to spin-up the brief landspout tornado. While no damage was reported, this landspout tornado was seen from several miles away. As the outflow from the parent thunderstorm surged west of the main updraft region, the source of the spinning updraft was cut-off, making the tornado rather brief. There were other reports of severe weather on the evening of July 2nd 2011, including strong damaging winds and large hail. Early in the evening, downburst winds downed power poles and large trees in the Arkansas City area. Later in the evening, after the landspout tornado, hail up to tennis ball size and 70 mph winds occurred across Ellsworth County in central Kansas.